Today, US Senate Republican leaders released a smaller, targeted COVID-19 package. Titled “Delivering Immediate Relief to America’s Families, Schools and Small Businesses Act”, the legislation focuses on specific priorities including childcare, COVID-19 testing, unemployment insurance, and the USPS. It would cost approximately $500 billion and a vote is expected as soon as this week. A larger relief package remains in limbo as Democratic and Republican leaders failed to reach an agreement on a topline number.
Category: Health/Medical
Meanwhile, the FY2021 Appropriations Bills Move Along
While most of the public’s attention is focused on the difficult negotiations that may or may not be taking placing on the next COVID relief package, the clock continues to count down to the start of FY2021.
The House is working to adopt a second “minibus” of spending bills before this weekend. Instead of taking up a seven-bill package as originally planned, the chamber is now considering one made up of six pieces, having removed the almost-always-controversial Homeland Security measure from the minibus. More than 300 amendments are expected to be debated before a vote to adopt the legislation.
This week’s package is made up of: Commerce-Justice-Science; Defense; Energy and Water; Labor-HHS-Education; Financial Services-General Government; and Transportation-HUD bills. Last week, the House cleared the Agriculture, Interior, State-Foreign Operations, and VA-Military Construction measures. This leaves the Homeland Security and Legislative Branch bills for future consideration.
The Senate still has yet to produce any of the 12 bills.
Spending Bills Move to the House Floor
After a flurry of activities in subcommittee and full committee the last two weeks, the vast majority of FY2021 spending bills is scheduled to move to the House floor this week and next for consideration by the full chamber. Rather than considering them individually, the bills will be grouped into two different “minibus” legislative packages.
The first grouping of bills, H.R 7608, is made up of four pieces of legislation and it is slated for consideration later this week: State-Foreign Operations; Agriculture; Interior; and, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs. A summary of the package, prepared by the House Democratic staff, is available here.
The second batch, H.R. 7617, is currently scheduled for floor action next week. This second minibus pulls together seven of the eight remaining spending measures: Defense; Commerce-Justice-Science; Energy and Water; Financial Services; Homeland Security; Labor-HHS-Education; and, Transportation-Housing. A summary of the different parts of the large bill is available here.
Should these packages pass, only the Legislative Branch would remain unapproved in the House by the end of next week.
House Appropriations Process Marches On
The FY2021 appropriations process continues to march on in the House, for now, with two more bills slated for committee action today. This afternoon, the Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up the Labor-HHS-Education and Energy and Water Development bills.
Labor-HHS-Education
As part of the overall level of $47 billion for NIH, the Labor-HHS-Education bill would fund:
- HIV/AIDS Research at $3.1 billion
- Alzheimer’s research at $2.9 billion
In addition, AHRQ would be funded at $343 million
Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) Title VII health professions and Title VIII nursing programs would be funded at $512.5 million and $270.0 million, respectively.
The Labor-HHS report also includes the following language with respect to the reporting of foreign gifts that meet certain criteria:
Disclosure of Foreign Gifts and Contracts.—The Committee reminds colleges and universities receiving Federal funds that section 117 of the HEA requires institutions to disclose certain gifts from or contracts with foreign entities and that the Department makes such information publicly available on its website. The Committee directs the Department to work with institutions to improve the reporting process. Disclosure requirements increase transparency and help protect our national security and academic integrity.
In addition to the funding levels for the programs we reported on last week, the House bill would also fund Title VI International Education programs at $80.3 million (an increase of $4.2 million), GAANN at $24.0 million (an increase of $1 million), and the Institute of Education Sciences at $630.5 million (an increase of $7 million).
Energy and Water
The Energy and Water Development bill under consideration today calls for $2.85 billion for the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EER&E) programs, an increase of $58 million. Within EER&E, renewable energy programs would see a cut of $4 million and would be supported at $638 million.
The bill calls for ARPA-E to be funded at $1.02 billion, which represents an increase of $35 million.
The Office of Science would see $7.05 billion under this bill, an increase of $50 million. Following programs within Science would be funded in the following manner:
- Advanced Scientific Computing– $1.02 billion (+$35 million)
- Basic Energy Sciences– $2.24 billion (+$29 million)
- Biological and Environmental Research– $760 million (+$10 million)
- Fusion– $680 million (+$9 million)
- High Energy Physics– $1.08 billion (+$5 million)
- Nuclear Physics– $715 million (+$2 million)
Presidential Proclamation on Non-Immigrant Visas
Today, President Trump signed an executive order curtailing H-1B, H-2B, H-4, L, and certain J visas, as well as immigrant visas, through December 31, 2020: “Proclamation Suspending Entry of Aliens Who Present a Risk to the U.S. Labor Market Following the Coronavirus Outbreak”.
Limited exemptions may be provided for those working in the food supply chain, as well as limited national security exemptions as determined by the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security. Also exempted under Sec. 4(a)(i) are persons providing medical care for COVID-19 patients or conducting medical research to combat COVID-19. With regards to J visas, professors, alien physicians, and research scholars appear to be exempt.
The proclamation applies only to persons who are outside the United States and who do not hold a valid non-immigrant visa or official permission to travel as of June 24, 2020.
The full text of the proclamation is available here. Our office is actively working with our partners to better understand the scope of this proclamation, and will update this post as new information becomes available.